Fernanda Navas couldn’t hide her shock after learning a fellow asylum seeker and resident of the Roosevelt Hotel was stabbed to death.
“It’s dangerous, and it’s scary to hear about incidents like this,” said Navas in Spanish, waiting for her children to arrive from school and tightly bundled up against the cold. “I am afraid to go out or to be outside the hotel very late at night.”
The New York City Police Department continues to search for the three men connected to the stabbing incident that left 17-year-old Yeremi Colino dead and another 18-year-old teen wounded last week in Lower Manhattan. On Tuesday, NYPD Assistant Commissioner, Carlos Nieves, told Documented, investigators now believe the deadly stabbing stemmed from what appears to have been a dispute between rival gangs.
“There are indications that there were gang signs being displayed,” said Commissioner Nieves, referring to a video showing a larger group approached by the two teens who were stabbed. “In regard to the young man that passed away, there are members of another gang, ‘Los Diablos de la 42,’ that have vowed vengeance for his death.”
Also read: Law Enforcement Can’t Confirm the Tren de Aragua Gang is in New York City
Nieves added that during the investigation detectives found a social media post in which members of ‘Los Diablos de la 42,’ in English ‘The 42 Street Devils,’ promised revenge.
“Part of our investigation, when we look into these matters, obviously is the video canvas, speaking to witnesses, asking people to call if they have information, pulling out images, and we search social media,” said Nieves.
NYPD told Documented that the two teenagers approached the three alleged attackers first, then engaged them in a verbal dispute on John St. near Broadway in the Financial District last Thursday night.
Nieves said NYPD investigators are looking into a video that apparently shows the physical altercation.
“The young man that was stabbed to death, that young man is swinging an object attempting to strike at one of the opposing parties,” said Nieves while describing the images. “He did not strike him. And what happens is, while he’s swinging, attempting to hit that individual, another male comes in, stabs him.”
Colino was stabbed in the chest with a knife. Police said he then pulled into a local business where someone called for an ambulance. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital where he subsequently died from his injuries. The three suspects fled the scene.
The other teen received a stab wound to his left arm and is in stable condition. Authorities said he is a resident at a migrant shelter inside the Stewart Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
“I don’t wish that pain on anyone. I can’t even imagine it,” said Kaliana Arzola, a Venezuelan asylum seeker staying at the Stewart Hotel with her four children.
“I can’t even imagine the pain for his mother, it’s bad,” Arzola said in Spanish, as she became emotional while sharing that her oldest son is the same age as the murdered teen. “The thought of someone killing your son, in a country that one is not prepared for, it’s terrible.”
The fatal stabbing occurred right in front of a Pace University freshman dorm building.
Angelina Pacilli, a communications student at the university, said she was at her job on John St. when she heard the commotion coming from outside.
“I heard people screaming, then I opened the door, and I saw a fellow student crying hysterically. I looked to the left of me and right there was the blood and the weapons.” Pacilli said.
Pacilli said the Pace officials immediately notified students and staff about the incident and offered mental health services to those affected.
Initial reports suggested NYPD detectives were looking into whether the incident was a hate crime. This after an apparent eyewitness account stating they heard the suspects ask the victims if they spoke English.
At the time, even NYC Mayor Eric Adams alluded to the claims by saying that the murder could be a hate crime if the investigation concluded “that they were stabbed for not speaking English.”
Fear among the undocumented community has heightened since Donald Trump’s election victory. Many migrants have characterized Trump’s promises of the ‘largest deportation’ in U.S. history as a looming threat to their futures. Some believe Trump’s immigration stance could incite racial hatred.
“You have to be terrified. I’m not ready to speak English yet,” said Arzola. “May it be God’s will around what he’ll do with us. There are good people, and there are bad people, we just want to do what’s best for our children.
However, on Tuesday Nieves said to Documented that the department is not able to confirm the early reports of the crime being hate-related as the investigation is ongoing.
“We’re trying to see where that originated from,” said Nieves.
NYPD told Documented no arrests have been made yet and released photos and a video of the three men in hopes of obtaining the public’s help in identifying them.
At the Roosevelt, while making sure her 5-month-old daughter was properly covered with her “Hello Kitty” blanket in her stroller, Navas mentioned she has seen people doing drugs and other illicit activities outside her shelter, late at night, usually around the time she returns from her temporary job cleaning offices.
“When I see people like that, I just try to stay away from them,” said Navas in Spanish,
The mother, along with her three daughters, fled violence and poverty in her native Ecuador in search of a better life in New York City.
How To Get Help With Your Heating Bill in NYC
“Here in New York, there is a lot of insecurity, a lot of madness,” said Adolfo Suarez, 20, another asylum seeker from Venezuela, when learning about the deadly stabbing. “You can’t walk around in New York without laying your eyes everywhere.”
Suarez moved to “The Big Apple” with his now 8-month pregnant wife two months ago. He said the temporary roofing job he got in Denver ended and he couldn’t continue paying his weekly rent for a modest hotel room. So, he made the hard decision to move here.
The young father said the recent violent incident is making him reconsider his decision.
“One never expects that another person is going to come here and stab you or shoot you, here in the streets of New York, right in the nation’s tourism center,” Suarez said in Spanish.
